Financial News has just announced their 2010 list of the most influential people in finance. Interesting list, and here's a selection of the ones who interested me:
Chief Executives
- Brady Dougan (Credit Suisse)
- Josef Ackermann (Deutsche Bank)
- Oswald Grübel (UBS)
- John Varley (Barclays)
- Michael Sherwood (Goldman Sachs)
- Baudouin Prot (BNP Paribas)
- Jonathan Moulds (Bank of America)
- Alessandro Profumo (Unicredit)
- Stephen Hester (RBS)
- Frédéric Oudéa (Societe Generale)
Regulation and policy
- Mario Draghi (Banca d'Italia)
- Mervyn King (Bank of England)
- Nout Wellink (De Nederlanske Bank)
- Hector Sants (FSA)
- Michel Barnier (European Commission)
- Eddy Wymeersch (CESR)
- Jean-Claude Trichet (ECB)
- Sharon Bowles (European Parliament)
- Douglas Ferrans (Investment Management Association)
- Thierry Francq (AMF)
Market infrastructure
- Xavier Rolet (LSE)
- Dominique Cerutti (NYSE Euronext)
- Reto Francioni (Deutsche Bourse)
- Alasdair Haynes (Chi-X)
- Michael Spencer (ICAP)
- Mark Hemsley (BATS)
- Phil Hylander (Goldman Sachs)
- Roger Liddell (LCH.Clearnet)
- Jon Ross (Getco)
- Niki Beattie (Market Structure Partners)
It's actually a pretty obvious listing of the most regularly talked about persons in each sector, and very EU focused. For example, if it were a global list, then surely the CEO of HSBC, Michael Geoghegan, has to be up there.
Even from an EU perspective, placing Barnier and Bowles on the regulators list but missing out on Jacques de Larosière seems like an oversight.
I would also like to see the names of Christine Lagarde and Wolfgang Schaeuble up there, but you can't have everything ... and it suits Financial News purpose.
Even so, a useful list, and several names of past and future FSClub speakers, such as Sharon Bowles.
Meanwhile, it must be Awards season, as Euromoney have printed their list of the 2010 Excellence Awards, where Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank won top honours.
What intrigued most people is their pick for Banker of the Year: Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup.
Why did this catch our attention.
Well, Euromoney's opening paragraph gives the game away:
For a man who was supposedly doomed to fail, Vikram Pandit has done a pretty good job in transforming Citigroup. Few, if any, bank chief executives have faced a tougher set of challenges over the past two years or been the subject of as much criticism. He has come through many battles, and has many more to come. But perhaps it’s time to start giving Pandit some credit.
My favourite line then follows: "Being a supermarket is not a strategy." That simple sentence sums up everything that went wrong with Citigroup, and everything that Vikram Pandit is trying to do to make Citi one of the world’s best banks again.
Strange as Sandy Weill, the creator of Citi's supermarket, was the guy who lobbied Bill Clinton to repeal Glass-Steagall a decade ago in order to allow this to happen.
Oh well, what goes around comes around ...
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
